In need of Expert advice... The quest for UDP connectivity.

[Jump5]

Hello, I've been reading the forums and the netplay related stickies in-depth for two weeks. My only stumbling block is connecting to other players with ZSNES using Zbattle (Zbattle connects fine) with the UDP protocol (port 7845 of course). TCP works fine, but performance is sub-par and many Zbattle players do not want TCP. Well first off I decided to call my ISP, they said they do not block UDP connections, and that the only ports they block are 25 and 80. In both cases, it's not a block, but a different way of dealing with transmission (port 25) and retrieval (port 80) for extremely heavily used (and abused) ports.

I am using wireless DSL, my router is a D-Link WBR-2310 and I am wired directly into it. My computer is an Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz with 512MB of RAM. Operating
System is Microsoft XP Media Center Edition, Version 2002 with Service Pack 2. I have no anti-virus software and no software/hardware firewalls enabled, and the Windows XP firewall is disabled. The only remotely related possible thing is Lavasoft's Ad-aware 2007 Free edition, which isn't actively blocking anything. Also I am not using Windows ICS (Internet Connection Sharing). I've tested both v1.42 and v1.36 (with hosts having the exact same version) of ZSNES and I can connect perfectly with Zbattle v1.09 SR-1 beta. I've tested 15+ users on Zbattle (them being the host and I being the client "connecting to server"), whose UDP connections work fine but neither one of them can connect with me using UDP (but TCP works). I tried hosting but no one would play (yes I did use the popular games) so I was unable to test my hosting abilities.

Now to tell you of all the steps I've done to try and fix this and what I've currently tested Zbattle users with (They can connect fine with UPD).

1. I changed my LAN IP address to static, changing it to 192.168.0.136. I double checked with "ipconfig/all" at the command prompt. (Picture 1)

2. I kept Windows XP firewall turned off even though (also tried it on but still did now work) I did allow both UDP and TCP ports 7845 through, for LAN address 192.168.0.136 (Picture1)

3. Since I am behind a router I decided to port-forward port 7845 for both TCP and UDP protocols to my computer's stactic LAN address 192.168.0.136. (Picture 2)

4. I understand completely that ZSNES shows my LAN/private/internal address 192.168.0.136. I'm also knowledgeable that I need to put my host's public/external address (the one from "Ipchicken.com") to the right of "IP:" and above the "Connect to Server" button (I know Zbattle does this for you, I've also done this manually).

5. Steps 1-3 were double checked by PortFowarding.com's instructions for setting a static IP address, router port-forwarding and port-forwarding XP's firewall.

6. I tried connecting to two other computers within my LAN (both behind the same router) using UDP, and it worked perfectly (loaded the game up fine) connected right off (of course, it's local). Now I can connect within my LAN (same external IP address, but different private addresses), and with XP firewall on and also while behind my D-Link WBR-2310 router, using the UDP protocol but not with others outside my LAN (different external IP addresses).

7. Since I was still unable to play ZSNES with UDP connectivity, I decided to bypass the router completely. Now I am directly connected to my wireless DSL . modem, no Anti-virus (uninstalled and rebooted), no software firewall other than XP which has been disabled (UDP/TCP 7845 still forwarded to my static LAN address 192.168.0.136). I tried to connect with others with ZSNES using UDP port 7845 and it still would say "connecting to server..." (It would stay there for hours no joke and would not even say "init failed" like it sometimes would with TCP) and my CPU was not bogged down at all.
Although with TCP my CPU was stressed. Now at this point I'm pretty confused I've port-forwarded my router, XP firewall and even turned of my firewall and bypassed my router with no UDP connectivity outside my LAN.

8. I've also tested port 7845 with canyouseeme.org, most of the time says "connection timed out" or "connection refused" (Picture 3).


So with this information, are there any experts that have any advice, or questions about my current situation? I am extremely motivated and willing to see this through. My personnel thanks goes out to you in advance for your time and effort.


Picture 1




Picture 2




Picture 3

[AntoineWG]

First, props for being thorough. You really provided a lot of useful information, unlike a lot of other posts in this forum.

Am I reading picture 3 correctly? It says your router's WAN address is 10.0.1.100, which would be a NATed address and not capable of receiving incoming connections, yet you posted from a 67.118.xxx.xxx (don't worry, only mods and admins can see it). Usually the WAN (Wide Area Network) address is a real public IP address and this is probably the root of your problem.

I've had wireless "DSL" (which is really long range WiFi and has nothing to do with DSL) and it works great, especially if nothing else is available. Many providers, especially the smaller ones, have 2 tiers of service--a cheaper one with NATed addresses and more expensive ones with real public addresses. I would contanct your ISP to find out if you have a real IP address or a NATed address, and how you can work with that to forward ports to your radio.

[PHoNyMiKe]

canyouseeme.whatever may claim there's nothing there, because there is nothing to accept incoming requests. I would open up zsnes, and 'connect' to a server, then minimize zsnes and then fire up canyouseeme.uhhuh. that way zsnes is waiting for a connection, and the website may see zsnes and say "all okay."

now if you have your computer tied directly to your modem, check out whatismyip.com. that is the ip address others should connect to. otherwise (through your router,) your router will have that ip address, and forward port 7845 to 192.168.0.136 (which is you.)

side note, I always have windows set up for DHCP, and have the router assign ip addresses based on mac address. so windows will take whatever ip address it's given, and the router realizes that my computer is meant to have a static ip address. I've had fewer issues with this setup, but not all old ass routers accept this setup.

I've never used zbattle.net, but would it be so uncanny that someone use a port other than 7845? maybe port 81, 666, or 1 might work for you.

hope this helps buddy, I've never had any probs like this even with a router.